lipstick on a pig

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Wed, Sep 10, 2008 at 6:11 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
> At 9/10/2008 05:53 PM, Benjamin Zimmer wrote:
> >I just wrote this up as a Slate "Explainer":
> >
> >http://www.slate.com/id/2199805/
> >
> >Space didn't allow for acknowledgments of ADS-L assistance, so thanks
> >to those who helped out.
>
> If one wants to add politics to the lexicography, on NPR some time
> around 5:30 today (Boston DST) I heard a commentator point out that
> McCain and Cheney had used the same expression recently (as had
> Charles Rangel).

As, indeed, I mentioned in the last paragraph of the "Explainer". (You
have to scroll past the ad to get there.)

Here are some more congressional variations, courtesy of "Heard on the
Hill" in today's edition of the Capitol Hill newspaper _Roll Call_
(online article is behind a subscription wall):

---
• Rep. Mike Michaud (D-Maine) on the Peru free-trade agreement: "Same
old model with a little lipstick."

• Rep. Linda Sánchez (D-Calif.) on trade policy: "You know the old
saying about lipstick on a pig? Well, I smell bacon."

• Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) on withdrawal in Iraq: "Calling this
surrender a 'withdrawal' or a 'redeployment' is like putting lipstick
on a pig. No matter what you call it, it is still a pig."

• Westmoreland on energy policy: "The energy bills that were brought
out this week was kind of like putting lipstick on a pig."

• Westmoreland, again on energy policy: "It's almost like putting
lipstick on a pig. You can make it look good, but it's only going to
be a pig."

• Westmoreland, yet again on energy policy: "So while we are passing
these bills ... it's been putting lipstick on a pig."

• Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) on an omnibus spending bill: "There has
been lipstick placed on this pig, but it's still a pig."

• Rep. David Dreier (R-Calif.) on an ethics proposal: "They may have
put lipstick on that pig, but it is still a pig."

• Rep. Solomon Ortiz (D-Texas) on the president's veto of a children's
health bill: "There's just no lipstick to pretty up this pig."

• Ortiz on language in a border-wall bill: "That puts a little
lipstick on the pig."

• Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) on Republican moves on carbon
emissions: "You can put lipstick on a pig, but it is still a pig."

• Rep. Sam Johnson (R-Texas) on a children's health bill alternative:
"We have a saying in Texas, if you put lipstick on a pig, it will
still be a pig."

• Rep. Howard McKeon (R-Calif.) on equal-pay legislation: "This
amendment is the equivalent of putting lipstick on a pig."

• Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) on wiretapping legislation: "It's
very difficult to put lipstick on a pig."

• Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-Ga.) on Medicare legislation: "... trying to
put lipstick on this legislative pig."

• Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) on a college- cost bill: "You can put
lipstick on a pig, but it is still a pig."

And HOH's personal favorite:

• Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.) on a human rights commission:
"Ambassador [John] Bolton stated at the creation of the new council,
'We want a butterfly. We're not going to put lipstick on a caterpillar
and declare it a success.'"
---


--Ben Zimmer

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